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Becoming an entrepreneur after 50, WNMU hosts event to help career-changers

WNMU hosts presentation to help those who want a career change

By Bill Charland

For the Sun-News

Posted:
04/17/2014 02:09:49 PM MDT

By Phoebe Lawrence For the Sun-News
William and Elizabeth Lloyd, two over-50 entrepreneurs who started a business in Silver City about a year ago. WNMU hosted an event Wednesday afternoon for those over 50 who want to become entrepreneurs .

SILVER CITY >> Cynthia Bridgeman, 63, spent some 26 years as a first-grade teacher, then many more in property management. When she finally retired, she said she found herself at loose ends, "reading and taking more long naps than I should." Now, she's back at work, a co-owner with her daughter of a local fitness center called Curves.

It's a scenario that Scott Terry has witnessed more than once.

"We see more and more folks finding that retirement isn't what they really wanted," he said. "You work for 40 years, and that day comes, and you say, 'I'm going to take it a little easier.' But then, before long, you know you've got to do something."

By Phoebe Lawrence For the Sun-News
Ron Belanger and Sandra Hicks, owners of the Inn on Broadway. Hicks and Belanger changed careers when they moved to Silver City.

Terry, who is president and CEO of the Silver City/Grant County Chamber of Commerce, said that one solution may be to start a business of one's own. The Chamber co-sponsored an innovative program at Western New Mexico University on Wednesday with the Small Business Development Center and the Small Business Administration. Encore Entrepreneurs showcased a variety of government-provided resources for older business owners, while providing an opportunity to network with others who are exploring new directions.

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One example of a couple who changed careers and became entrepreneurs over the age of 50 in Silver City are the owners of the Inn on Broadway, Sandra Hicks, 67, and Ron Belanger, 73, two senior adventurers from Boston. While living in Boston, Sandra worked in hospital management and Ron in computer operations. While in their mid-50s, they decided they were ready for a change, so they packed up and moved west to open their own business. What propelled their entrepreneurship was that when they visited Silver City, they fell in love with the town and knew they wanted to live here.

"But there were no jobs," Hicks said. So they looked at the town and decided to create jobs for themselves by starting their own bed and breakfast.

Just down the block from the Inn on Broadway are two more over-50 entrepreneurs, Elizabeth, 50, and William Lloyd, 51, who transplanted Lloyd Fine Art and Design Studios from South Padre Island, Texas to Silver City about a year ago.

Lloyd said he and his wife do not quite fit the profile, as they began their business nearly 20 years ago, but they both had earlier careers that they left in order to become entrepreneurs.

"I was a sort of jack-of-all trades," Lloyd said. "Then I got divorced. People always told me you can't make a living at art, but after I got divorced, I decided to try."

Lloyd said he wouldn't have his business, however, without his wife and business partner, Elizabeth. When he met her, she was an office manager at an REI store.

"With her business skills and my art skills, we made more money in the first two months after we began this than either of us had made the previous year. We aren't rich or anything, but we're able to hire apprentices," Lloyd said.

He emphasized his success was as much about his wife's business acumen as about his ability to make art.

"This isn't just about me," Lloyd commented. "Without her, this wouldn't be a business."

The dozen local residents who gathered in the lower level of Watts Hall at WNMU brought a wide swath of experience to the table. There was a chiropractor in search of new options, a woman selling radio advertising, a man looking to develop land who wasn't sure how to go about it, a novice freelance writer, and a Mary Kay Cosmetics consultant who used to be a registered nurse.

Mike Barragree, a former Emergency Medical Technician who works as a medical investigator, has launched a new enterprise, promoting film locations in the beautiful, four-county region of southwest New Mexico. He said, "We have a lot of empty space here, a sparse population, and few amenities — so we have to do a lot of networking."

That's much of what was going on at the meeting Wednesday. Gail Green, a retired hospice chaplain, would like to find ways to reclaim old wood, while Gordon West runs four businesses that are based on processing small logs. The two had an opportunity to make a connection.

Cynthia Martinez, new director of the Small Business Development Center at WNMU, was there to publicize her agency's free services to would-be entrepreneurs in everything from business plan development to marketing, cash flow management to bookkeeping and accounting, E-Commerce to loan application assistance. Her phone number is 575-538-6320.

Analysts believe that entrepreneurship among older Americans is rising, as baby boomers continue to retire. According to Babson College, 8 percent of businesses less than 3.5 years old are owned by people over 55.

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